Happiness, By Jay Taylor
Happiness can be defined by a good sense of well-being, joy and an overall sense of self. Being proud of yourself can achieve all these things, even if you don't have some “amazing life” where your utmost desires are a reality. I would want a toaster that actually toasts the bread just the way I like it, not burnt. Just crispy goodness. However you realise that some things in life are unachievable. This may bring people down, but that is just life. Knowing what is achievable and what isn't is where happiness comes from. This is all due to humans wanting unrealistic things, like material gain, etc. If you know your limitations at that very moment and you breaking through them later in life after practicing, it could be a day, or a year. It doesn't even matter what kind of task it may be, from beating a level in a hard video game or learning how to make pasta from scratch. That is where the majority of happiness comes from. In a world full of instant gratification, why would people bother to practice and hone their craft when the feeling they get from 5 seconds and 10 years is the same? This all stems from self control. I love memes and stuff where I can get instant gratification, and I enjoy sending them to friends, and watching what they send me so I am part of that problem. In saying this I have practiced guitar for so many years and only stopped at the passing of my teacher as it hurt to play something that was his entire life. The feeling I would get when I would see him on a Thursday or Friday afternoon was way more than any meme could give me. I would go behold and above to see him smile by practicing so much I could play every song off by heart, and at incredible speeds that most adults couldn't even achieve. Therefore it is all about the person, if you want to do something that takes time, you will. It doesn't matter if you give it up, as in that moment it felt good. You may never remember what it felt like or replicate it. But you will remember the amount of joy, overall sense of self, and being proud of what you achieved, even if it wasn't some “amazing life.”
That deep Feeling, By Jay Taylor
“Dolphins need air to survive, the rest of the time they are drowning. Humans are the same, just not as good. Me however? It doesn't matter, either way I feel like I’m drowning. One way or another, each and every day.” -Gary “Meet Gary, He’s struggling to find his passion in life. So today we are going to embark upon a quest.” An ominous voice from the darkest part of a jagged cave said in a rusty tone. A large figure began to emerge from the darkness. A round body, with what looks to be two round ears. Like a fat bear? Nope, a small snail with eyes a bit closer to his head than normal. “Howdy, I’m thee narrator!” Excitedly proclaimed the snail.” Not knowing that fact would have to wait. “Wait what” the snail said whilst turning pale.” Anyways… Gary begins to try new things to excite his life. He tried soccer, he won, he got mvp, yet the joy the people around him seemed to forget to include him in their little parade. “Let me take over” Interrupted the snail in a southern accent. “Where was I… He began to read some em books! Yet his lips still mouth remained tilted downwards." The wondrous world he dove into was full of adventure and awe. But that didn't change the feelings he had deep inside. “I could've said that last part better, '' mumbled the snail. Gary Tired of a day that went astray he went back to his lonely abode. No one else but him, nothing else but his thoughts. “I however came to de rescue!!!” screams the snail whilst knocking twice. Yet no response, the snail tried again exclaiming the same words, “I however came to de rescue!” This time all you could hear was the faint sound of boats in the distance, the bell ringing, men yelling gibberish and the woosh of the net collapsing against through sky above. If Gary wasnt here… Does that mean he? No he wouldn't have gone to the nets. That's a death trap for all that enter? “The sweet remouse, the one only said to be in fairy tales. The Net! Do I move? I may not have much to live for, but my body says to swim away? I don't want to die? I want to live! It may not be much, but it's mine!” Mumbles Gary. He begins to swim with all his might, weaving others that have accepted their fate. The brown net begins to rise, barging through waves of fish, one after the other. The net is on site, but only 30% remained underneath the heavens. 15%, 10%, 5%. Till all was lost…
Sense of voice, By Jay Taylor
To develop a good sense of voice you need three things. Language, your decision to pick words for your target audience. Examples include if I was to write a children's book, I would use basic words. This way my target audience (children) understand it. If I was to write to HSC markers, I would use “fancier words” as I like to call them, these include: Phenomenon, Anemone, Octopus, and the hardest. Worcestershire! Next on my list is storytelling. Grown up words are one thing, but if it's boring to read, well it's boring. And as an english student I have to ban the b’s. You know that one poster which magically appears in every English room? Follow it, do I remember what it says? Nope. The last of thy three is emotion. You want the readers to become emotionally attached to your (eg.) characters. So when they have a fight scene, the reader will actually care if they die, or get damaged. The best kind of emotion is honest emotion, which is why creating your own personal voice is so crucial! My experiences with using these techniques, and advice! To start with, you use all of these techniques throughout life, you just start to hone your skills and unlock crazy perks! I recently got into writing sarcasm, but this time the teacher can't complain. Because that's my voice, my calling if you will! Now they just say I need to work on tings like grammer and speling. Which is an obvious lie they are trying to pull on me so I don't realise how powerful I truly am! To be more on a serious tone I made a new paragraph just for that soul purpose. A sense of voice does not come instantly, it takes time and practice just like anything else in life. When I heard I had to write using my sense of voice, I wanted to stay impersonal and let the piece do the talking. Easier that way because when I read my favourite parts are normally everyone just chilling and when the setting is described. Yes I could have written about a society and just describe it and its downfalls for example using my main tone. However I felt like I couldn't have done what I love perfectly. So take risks and have fun with your writing, and what I have truly realised is that your personal voice is you having fun, unless you hate writing…
My reflection for the above pieces, By Jay Taylor
The purpose of writing the texts was to convey my central message of sense of voice, and wrote three different pieces around that. I didn't want all my pieces to just be logos, so instead I tried to do a mix, with logos and pathos mainly as ethos is difficult for me to write with such a small word count. In my imagination I wanted the reader to feel empathy for Gary (the fish) as when he finally got what he wanted in life it was too late. The concept and voice I aimed to develop was a sense of voice as I would rather a text to be impersonal due to my own reasoning and experiences. However since the whole topic was about sense of voice I decided just to write about that and how hard it can be when you don't really have one that you would like to share, as the fish had no passion/sense of voice and my discursive was all about happiness and what it is and I believe that that is directly related to a sense of voice. My experiences of reading and writing texts in this unit have influenced how I write my own style as my teacher helped me decide what I should write about, and reading those small stories helped me realise how to truly make a reader invested in the story. The dramatic reading preparation assisted me in my editing process as I would write a bit and read it out loud to see if it would sound interesting to actually hear instead of read. I also wrote a lot more in my style of speech to present my voice and so I could choose any text to use for my dramatic reading and have it effective.
Dramatic reading..